Category Archives: mindfulness

Clinical mindfulness, back to basics

Stuart has been involved in mindfulness since his teens. Beginning with transcendental meditation and self hypnosis, he then studied Taoist meditation and yoga alongside Japanese and Chinese martial arts.

For Stuart, mindfulness is a natural way of life, and in recent years he has studied formally a range of additional courses and CPD certificates to refresh areas of competence.

Stuart has completed clinical mindfulness training for groups, CBT and mindfulness for depression and practical meditation training, as well as certification courses in additional theory. His clinical training has been with NHS and private practice clinicians at courses here in Scotland.

Stuart has run training courses at levels 4 and 5 in mindfulness and uses both active and passive mindfulness in clinical practice in Edinburgh, Falkirk and Glasgow. Methods include MBSR, MBCT, teaching mindfulness and hypnosis based mindfulness.

More mindfulness training for CPD

As part of our commitment to CPD training, we both carry out far more than the required continuous professional development levels each year.

Stuart has just completed a CPD short diploma in Mindfulness based cognitive behavioural therapy (August 2017), just to stay up to date with the area. He has already trained extensively in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, training and meditation based mindfulness.

Ongoing professional development and improvement

Stuart is dedicated to ongoing professional development and improvement. As part of his professional registrations he is required to complete around 20 hours a year of CPD training. Stuart however regularly completes far more than this.

Development of existing service continues….

Both Stuart and his colleague and Scotlandtherapy partner Denise are dedicated to ongoing learning and development, and therefore complete additional university based and practical Ongoing Professional Development training each and every year. This is all on top of existing professional qualification training.

Mindfulness and Philosophy

Stuart in particular has completed additional trainings this year in MBCT (mindfulness based cognitive therapy), CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) for depression and additional training in general mindfulness. He is booked to attend additional specialist training in the use of philosophical models in psychotherapy later in the year, which should nicely complement his nearly completed BA (Hons) in Psychology and philosophy of the mind. This is on pause at the moment since the last university model will not become available until late 2017.

Additional University based learning

Both Stuart and Denise has multiple university awards. Stuart has two University Certificates of Education (Undergraduate) from Lampeter and Edinburgh Universities, Bachelor degrees from City of Birmingham University and the Open University, and a Masters Degree from the Open University. He is about to begin a new degree alongside completing a Psychology and Philosophy of the Mind degree, this time in International Relations, specialising in the effect of ecology and politics on people, with specific regard to mental health issues and disability issues. This ties in with his work writing a regular political column for Self and Society professional journal and other publications and articles.

Denise has completed an undergraduate certificate of Education from Edinburgh University and two bachelor degrees from the Open University. She is about to embark on a third degree, focusing on Business, in particular human resources.

New publication on future of psychological therapy

Colleagues and clients alike are recommended to take a look at the new book Edited by my colleague John Lees. It has contributions from several other colleagues of mine, and I wrote Chapter 3. It looks at the future of the profession through a critical lens from several perspectives and would be very useful for a student therapist or new graduate.

The Future of Psychological Therapy: From Managed Care to Transformational Practice

Psychological therapy for Dis-associative Disorders

Dis-associative disorders are conditions where the sufferer dis-associates for periods of time. What this means in basic terms is they mentally “switch off” or “blank” in a way that may either appear to be day dreaming, or which may just resemble a silent few moments. In more severe cases two other presentations may occur: dis-associating into a different personality, or with a loss of consciousness.

Short blank disassociations

This is the most likely version to be seen, the person reacts to stress or an anxiety trigger by “being elsewhere”. it can also be the result of a flash back being triggered where a historical event is being recalled. The person may appear inattentive, distance, and seem to be ignoring you. This can lead to misunderstanding, conflict and accusations of laziness or inattention, especially in adolescents in education or when it occurs in the workplace. Depending on whether a task is under way at the time, it is possible for this task to be interrupted for a moment, or even, for example, for a cup of tea being made to be split or dropped.

It should be noted that it is very hard to tell these short blanks apart from epileptic “absence” seizures and it is important to discuss them with your medical doctor and not assume they are psychological in nature. It should be remembered however that it is more usual for psychological disassociation to be misdiagnosed as epilepsy.

Personality change disassociation

In more severe cases the personality of the sufferer undergoes a change in the disassociated state and a person may appear to have changed in their behaviour, attitude and even in what they believe and remember. What occurs in this state may not be remembered afterwards.

It is a matter of debate whether this is related to schizophrenia or not, with some sufferers of disassociation adamant that it is a different condition entirely, and some sufferers of schizophrenia claiming that their condition is itself a form of disassociation.

Loss of consciousness disassociation

Often called Non Epileptic Attack Disorder (NEAD) or pseudo-epilepsy, this is the ultimate disassociation response. The person will loss consciousness and will often shake or spasm as one would expect to see in epilepsy. NEAD is often initially misdiagnosed as epilepsy.

Most people are aware of flight and fight responses to danger. The third response however is that seen in the humble possum. The person loses consciousness, lies still playing dead, the body is flooded by natural pain killers, and for the predator the sufferer / possum appears to be a long dead and unpalatable prey. This state is often associated with loss of bowel or bladder control, again to make the prey smell “off”. This is a highly primal response to extreme danger.

Causes of disassociation

Disassociation occurs when the sufferer has a history of being faced by traumas such as abuse or rape which can not be coped with at their mental state or age. Thus it is common for these conditions to be present in adult survivors of child sexual abuse or domestic violence. Essentially the subject learns to “opt out” of the situation they are incapable of handling.

Treatment of disassociation

There are two main strategies for addressing disassociative disorders:

1. Increase the sufferer’s ability to cope with stressful situations. This may involve cognitive behavioural therapy to reduce stress response with methods like stress inoculation therapy. It may also involve analysis of interpersonal relationships to adjust perceptions and behaviours which may otherwise lead to conflict. Interpersonal psychotherapy methods, CBASP, CAT or other analytic cognitive behavioural methods might be employed. This is therefore an attempt to use psychoeducation and personal analysis to better manage the condition day to day.

2. Addressing any history of abuse. Addressing PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) as a condition may reduce the underlying effects presented as a disassociative disorder. Psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioural analysis, trauma debriefing such as specialist hypnotherapy “trauma runs” can all be used if appropriate.

Co-morbid presentation

It is common for persons with disassociate disorders to have a history of different diagnosis, and to have elements of different mental health conditions. These might include depression, anxiety, self harm, mood disorders or OCD.

Group therapy and mindfulness in Edinburgh

Group therapy on Saturdays in Edinburgh at the South Side Centre will provide support for persons with mental health issues including anxiety, depression, stress and anger.

A combination of CBT, CBASP, Coaching and mental health support methods like WRAP and Mental Health First Aid processes will identify problems and responses, while mindfulness, meditation, visualisation and hypnotherapy processes will be taught to reduce stress and enable relaxation.